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Natalie Dormer: A Force to Be Reckoned With

As crafty Lady Margaery on Game of Thrones, Natalie Dormer is a force to be reckoned with. She tells us how she stays strong—and a step ahead. Plus, see behind-the-scenes footage from her SELF cover shoot.

Natalie Dormer doesn't scare easily. She once shaved her head for a role. She has a tattoo on the inside of her left forearm that reads: FEAR IS THE MIND-KILLER. As Margaery Tyrell on Game of Thrones, she held her own against King Joffrey—one of the biggest psychopaths ever to appear on television—then married him.

But even someone as bold as Dormer wondered what she'd gotten herself into when she signed on to run her first marathon. It was 2013, and she had just agreed to play Cressida, the semiautomatic weapon–toting PR girl turned warrior, in the Hunger Games franchise. The role required her to report for work at 5 a.m. every day, so that half of her head could be shaved and an intricate fake tattoo could be applied to her scalp. Then, after 12-hour days of shooting battle scenes, she'd spend another hour working out at night, alternating between running the hilly streets of Atlanta—where filming took place—and doing interval sessions at a local gym. All of this was to prep for the April 2014 London marathon. "I actually look back on it now and think, F---ing hell, how did I do that?" she says.

It's a reasonable question—for those who aren't acquainted with the 33-year-old actress's unstoppable drive. After all, she'd never competed in a race that long before. She signed up to run in London before she knew that The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 1 and Part 2 shooting schedule would require her to report to set before dawn. "My way of surviving it was a nap at lunch," she says. The schedule and exercise regimen both seemed like crazy ideas at first, but in hindsight her plan was serendipitous. "In Mockingjay—Part 2, I'm basically running around in heavy armor while carrying a semiautomatic rifle," she says of the film that will hit theaters this fall. "I don't know how I would have kept up with [costars] Liam Hemsworth or Sam Claflin if I hadn't been in the best cardiovascular shape of my life."

Dormer's attention to the physical has also helped her embody her most famous character, Margaery in Game of Thrones. "Being strapped into a corset with this long flowing skirt immediately changes the way you look in the mirror," she says. "My way into Margaery is actually quite physical, even though she's not a physical character in the way that Cressida is."

It was important for Dormer to find quick ways to embody each of those characters, because her packed filming schedule didn't allow her much time to ease her way in. Once filming of the fourth season of Game of Thrones wrapped in Europe in fall 2013, she jetted straight to Atlanta for back-to-back shoots of Mockingjay—Part 1 and Part 2, which took nine months to complete. Then, after just a few days off, she flew back to Europe and put on her Rapunzel-like Margaery wig to begin filming the fifth season of Thrones, which premieres April 12.

Dormer was able to keep up with this daunting schedule, in part, because of the way she takes care of her body. Born in Reading, England, she was classically trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London; her acting education included regular yoga classes and the Alexander Technique, a mindfulness training course that helps students become more aware of their bodies in space. "When you work the unnatural hours that actors work, and when you fly as much as we do, you have to pay attention to your body—or else you're a disaster ready to happen," Dormer says.

She focuses on eating well and making sure she can fit in time for exercise—two of the major keys, she says, to building the stamina to endure the 12-hour shoots. On those mornings when she has to be on-set before dawn, she starts her day with a green juice. "When you have early calls, you don't necessarily want to eat first thing in the morning," she says. "But you have such long days that if you don't, you really fall down from it. So, juicing before and eating later is, for me, a good nutritional compromise."

To be a successful theater actor, she also believes it's important to train like an athlete would. "People might not realize that going on stage for eight shows a week is a very physically labor-intensive exercise," she says. "You have to be fit." Dormer is that rare breed of actress who doesn't work out with a personal trainer. Still, she says, "I've always been a jogger and done yoga, and I like to swim as well."

Emotional support from her colleagues has proved equally important to her success. Because both Game of Thrones and The Hunger Games involve the meticulous process of adapting complex books with cultlike fan followings into interpretations suitable for the screen, Dormer has enjoyed being part of casts that have become particularly close. While training for the marathon, she was surprised to discover a secret fraternity of other distance runners at work every day. "This amazing thing happens where people come out of the woodwork," she says. "Suddenly someone in the camera department is giving you tips on nutrition, or the catering guy is giving you recipes. And everyone on-set in the morning is, like, 'How far did you run this weekend?' The support was really wonderful."

She's found support in other unlikely places as well. Two years ago, when she attended the White House Correspondents' dinner with Game of Thrones costar Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, she was floored to learn that so many politicos were huge fans of the show. "Weirdly, we've got quite a lot in common," she says of American congressmen and Kings Landing dragonesses. "We're acutely aware of the PR and politics and backbiting and ambition that goes on behind closed doors. The show is all about striving for power—why wouldn't politicians like the show?"

Those lawmakers had better clear some room on their schedules this spring, because Game of Thrones is approaching its most pivotal season yet. When we last left Margaery, her second attempt at entering into a politically advantageous marriage had just failed: Joffrey, her bloviating husband, was poisoned to death at their wedding reception. (Her first marriage, to Joffrey's uncle, Renly, ended when he was assassinated via stabbing.) Undeterred by two dead husbands, Margaery has turned her sights to Joffrey's kinder, younger brother (and new heir apparent to the throne), Tommen. The promotional clip for the new season hints at still another wedding for Margaery, though Dormer doesn't want to give away any plot twists for those fans who haven't read the books. "You know what they say," says Dormer of her resilient character. "Third time lucky!"

She's sensitive to revealing spoilers, but part of the reason Dormer can't say what will ultimately become of her character is that she doesn't know.

There's more! Read the rest of this feature by downloading the digital edition of SELF below.